| The answer to your question depends on several factors, including how many AP classes your high school offers, how well you score on your AP exams, and how many credits the college you plan to attend awards for those exams. For example, my nephew has completed six AP classes with scores of 3, 4, or 5 on the exams. NC State will award him 23 credits for those courses, UNC Charlotte will award him 25 credits, and Applachian State will award him 30 credits. That's a huge difference!
Also, some AP classes are worth more credits than others. My son earned 3 college credits for his AP English class, and earned 8 credits for his AP Calculus class (he took the harder BC exam, rather than the AB exam).
It's a good thing to take as many AP classes as you can handle, but don't get overwhelmed. You want to be sure that you can do well and score at least a 3 on each exam--colleges don't usually award any credit for a score of 1 or 2.
Also, check with the colleges you are thinkings about attending to see what AP classes and scores they accept. Some schools will let you use your AP credits to get out of general education requirements like freshman English, history, or math; others will give you a certain number of credits, but they won't "count" toward a particular requirement, they just increase your number of completed credits on your transcript.
Depending on how many AP classes you take in high school, you might be able to start college at sophomore status. With only 3 AP classes, my son earned 15 college credits and started (on paper anyway) as a second-semester freshman. For spring semester, he is technically now a sophomore. Because he got three of his college general ed classes out of the way through AP, he has more room in his schedule to take the classes he is really interested in and pursue a double major that might not otherwise have been possible within a four-year time frame. |